Durov said he chose Dubai in part for is its tax-free zone, which appeals as much to his laissez-faire philosophy as it does to his bottom line.
“It’s a matter of principle,” he said. “A lot of people in the western world don’t realize how much taxes limit their options. You can end up paying almost half your income in taxes, which basically means you’re working for the government for 180 days a year. I think I can find better ways to use the money I make for the benefit of society.”
But there’s a flip side to living in a country as socially and religiously conservative as the United Arab Emirates, as Durov admits.
“If I were gay, for example, it would be a little more difficult for me,” he said. “Or if needed to drink alcohol all the time — or eat pork.”
He’s a man of contradictions, posting a photo of himself bare-chested on Tinder and then refusing to be photographed for this story, inviting reporters to his new office, only to change his mind.
Surveillance State
Durov was born both in the Soviet Union and in 1984, two factual and fictional symbols of the evils of the surveillance state. He became a hero to many Russian millennials when he trolled the FSB for demanding VK user data in 2011, after opposition leaders used the network to organize the biggest protests of Vladimir Putin’s now-18-year rule.
He responded to the KGB successor by posting a photo of a tongue-wagging German Shepherd wearing a hoodie on his popular Twitter feed. But Durov, who wasn’t even old enough to vote when Putin first came to power, avoids talking politics, including the U.S. election hacks. He said he had no idea if Russia was behind the phishing attacks on the Democrats, but whoever was certainly didn’t need a state sponsor.
“I could have done that when I was 12,” he said. “It’s not hard.”
What is fair game for criticism, though, are policies like the “insane, stupid laws” that give Russia’s government more spying powers, he said. Even so, the last thing Durov wants is to be viewed as a dissident.
In fact, there’s a crowning irony Durov delights in. One of the most secretive tribes on the planet, Putin’s staff in the Kremlin, not only uses his encryption network, but praises it publicly, albeit with a characteristic caveat.
“Telegram is very handy,” Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said via Telegram. “We’re using it for public information, but not for non-public information. The internet can never be totally secure anywhere.”